An increase in global warming from 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius above late 19th-century levels would cause tens of thousands of extra deaths in China's cities every year, researchers reported Tuesday.

Even if one assumes future adaptations to cope with scorching heat—better public health services, more air conditioning, easy access to clean drinking water—the half-degree bump in temperature would likely result in some 30,000 additional heat-related deaths per year, they reported in the journal Nature Communications.

Improvements - Infrastructure - Preparedness - Mortality - Percent

Without those improvements in infrastructure and preparedness, excess mortality would go up another 50 percent.